Lone Oak 19

[BulletBill]

Hey BB, since your chatting on here, I'd like to ask you some questions.

I noticed that you chimed in on this thread because of someone complaining about how you originally set up the trees. And you went pretty far in depth about why you did the trees the way you did. Which is awesome by the way. In your opinion, do trees/treelines make or break a map? Like if the trees don't look real, then it just makes the rest of the map look "blah". And also, do you think the new graphics/lighting on 19 make trees look worse than they did on 17?

Any scenery for me on a map needs to look like it belongs there and looks natural.

For example like "this_is_gav" mentioned earlier when a mapper places every tree at the same height and orientation it looks awful, it completely breaks the immersion of feeling like your in a real place.
Or like "Mobias" mentioned, excessive use of trees to hide map borders is not a great idea, more for performance than anything.

So whether its the trees, forests, foliage, farm yards, fields, buildings everything for me needs to make sense on a map.

This is why fictional maps are far harder to make if you want to feel like your in a real place.

For me I don't want to play a game and be constantly reminded I'm in a game, as that quickly gets boring, I'm not 12 anymore. Instead I need to feel immersed in a map so that I forget I'm playing a game. Thats the point where I can get enjoyment from it.

Map borders particularly are something that are massively important to get right.
Because if done right this makes you feel like your part of a much bigger world than just a 2km x 2km area.
They also need to be as seamless as possible.

I was so disappointed when Fs19 was released with that stupid DOF blur on the horizon. It got rid of having any detail on map borders.

Fortunately GIANTS did alter this after Oxygendavid managed to convince them it was a good idea, and now it is possible to force the DOF off on a mod map all the time.

Anyway I hope this answers your questions Chedly.

[BulletBill]

3: There are no other mod trees that are better designed than the default ones around that can still be cut down ingame. In fact in all my years of modding not 1 modder has ever released a map with a custom made tree that can be cut down. Also to my knowledge GIANTS have never explained to any modder how this is even achieved.

Here's the primary issue. Giants removed the "walls" on the fields, allowing players to do what they wanted, yet didn't adequately support the placing and removing of those objects outside the "walls". There should be a placables/objects from small bushes all the way up to massive deciduous trees. The same goes for fences and many other objects around the map.

Having more choice of foliage, bushes and trees as default, would be a great asset to Modders.

Fs19 has brought some improvements in that area with adding LODs to foliage layers. Meaning they can be used for both up close detail and distance detail without having a big negative effect on FPS.

But tree wise it would be lovely to see more variation of tree shapes and varieties.
Even just small, medium and large styles would be something.
Also a tree that actually has some foliage lower down.

But then to GIANTS stuff like this doesn't matter as much as other stuff. Because most kids wouldn't careless what the trees look like. There more interested in the machinery.

[Mobias]

I am curious now, on what you think of Marwell and the use of trees on that map. As Marwell in my own personal taste of maps is the crown jewel of maps so far on 19.

Yeah I agree I think Marwell Manor is the best map made specifically for FS-19 we've seen to date. The use of trees in that map seems fine to me. There's a lot of trees but there's also great views to enjoy and lines of sight to distant parts of the map and the further world beyond giving a nice impression that is all seems real. Thats what BulletBill's and OxygenDavid's maps get right that practically no one else's do.

Its one area of map making that seems to be totally neglected by the modding community. No one makes off the shelf scenery to use as map borders as far as I can see. Almost every map I've seen so far for FS-19 uses those dreadful low res mountains that Giants made for the Ravesport map beyond the usual wall of trees approach.

[Mobias]

For the map I'm making I made simple hill shapes in Blender and then went onto Google Earth and found suitable field textures and mapped them onto the blank hill shapes I'd made. I had to muck about with the colours a bit to make it all bit more realistic in the game. Then I spent ages getting them all lined up right so it looks as realistic as I could get it. It looks ok but the textures look flat close up, I think it does give a decent impression that the map area is within a larger world that continues beyond the map border. I definitely wanted the map borders to be as open as possible like on Lone Oak. With a few objects placed out on them the effect works ok I think.

[Tylercheesey1986]

Mobias that looks amazing!!!

[iwan073]

[RogsR35UK]

The tree was in the field (on the left) by the corner where you turn left to the farm after leaving the shop. It was close to that corner. The T Rex seems to manage most trees but refused to have anything to do with this one tree. Even the Chainsaw wouldn’t work on it.

[Mobias]

Mobias that looks amazing!!!

Cheers! I'm planning on having the map ready for FS-23

Seriously though I would love to finish it one day and have it released. I do like a good US map and Lone Oak was a big source of inspiration for my map, which is set in the hilly Palouse region of Washington State.

[Tylercheesey1986]

I'm sure you will eventually get it finished.
When you do i am sure myself and many others will feel privileged to enjoy your creation and will spend a lot of hours amongst the Palouse hills

[BulletBill]

Mobias that looks amazing!!!

Cheers! I'm planning on having the map ready for FS-23

Seriously though I would love to finish it one day and have it released. I do like a good US map and Lone Oak was a big source of inspiration for my map, which is set in the hilly Palouse region of Washington State.

It's nice to see someone doing such an amazing job of building a map. Taking there time to get it right and trying to make it original and not borrow/use whatever is out there.

I remember when you showed me some very early screenshots back in Fs17.

With your passion and dedication to this map when you do release it, that will show.

[Fifty1990]

Is there a solution for the mirrors acting out on lone oak playing on the ps4 and the mirrors give flashing textures off black trees. Or is it a problem thats on giants end?

[Mobias]

It's nice to see someone doing such an amazing job of building a map. Taking there time to get it right and trying to make it original and not borrow/use whatever is out there.

I remember when you showed me some very early screenshots back in Fs17.

With your passion and dedication to this map when you do release it, that will show.

Cheers BB! Thanks for your encouragement. Yeah this is that same map I showed you a while back. Its gone through a few changes since then but I am pleased with it and creating it has been a real labour of love and a nice distraction from everyday life. I really look forward to coming home from work some days and spending an evening woking on it. I never really know at what point you say a map is ever finished? Just as I get one bit completed and then decide I don't really like it that much and have to rip it out and start over again. Sometimes just making small changes has a big impact on how one area of the map might feel. Sometimes it just seems never ending.

Your West Coast map was another big source of inspiration because it did such a good job of feeling like it was based on a real location but was actually completely fictional. That map must have taken ages to do. So complex.

[gingeredscot73]

West Coast is a work of art. One of my all time favourite maps.

[bossmanslim]

Well, I had to throw in the towel. There are 3 trees that I can't remove between the two big fields immediately west of the road next to the farm. 2 are buried and even the bigger one won't chip. I tried the chainsaw, bruks, the tractor mounted grinder and the Trex;none of them will remove the trees. I'm very disappointed.

[Cougarco93]

I’m am from the delta , 90% of the land is flat, almost Oklahoma flat. I would prefer maps like that open, flat. Off topic, I wish fences and walls snapped together, it’s horrible trying fences an area, also better way to lay out roads